Mayano Top Gun

Mayano Top Gun (Japanese: マヤノトップガン, Hepburn: Mayano Toppu Gan; March 24, 1992 – November 3, 2019) was a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse. His wins included the Kikuka Sho, Arima Kinen, Takarazuka Kinen, Hanshin Daishoten and Tenno Sho. In the 1995 JRA Awards, he was declared the Japanese Horse of the Year and the Best Three-year-old Colt.

Mayano Top Gun was a chestnut horse with a white blaze and a long white stocking on his left foreleg bred in Japan by Etsuo Kawakami. He was sired by the American stallion Brian's Time, who finished second in the Preakness Stakes in 1988 before becoming a highly successful breeding stallion in Japan. His dam Alp Me Please was sired by Blushing Groom and was a half-sister of the Grand Prix de Paris winner Swink: as a descendant of the broodmare Sonrisa, she was also a distant relative of the Belmont Stakes winner Ruler on Ice.^[3]

His name came from the owner's crown name Mayano which was derived from Mount Maya in Kobe, Hyogo, and Top Gun, the 1986 American movie.^[4][5]

Mayano Top Gun began his career racing on dirt and won three of his nine races in the early part of 1995.^[6] He was then switched to turf, being placed twice at both Kobe Shimbun Hai and Kyoto Shimbun Hai in September and October.^[7][8] He emerged as a top class performer in the late autumn in the Kikuka Sho. In the race, he was the third favourite behind Dance Partner and Narita King O.^[9] When the race began, he was chasing comfortably from a good position, was already close to the front by the fourth corner, and in the straight he pulled away from the rest of the pack to take the win by one and a quarter length over Tokai Palace and Hokkai Rousseau.^[10][9] In December, he contested one of Japan's most prestigious weight-for-age races, the Arima Kinen over 2500 metres at Nakayama. He pulled away early in the race, maintained that position throughout the race and won by two lengths from Taiki Blizzard and Sakura Chitose O.^[11][12]

In March 1996, Mayano Top Gun was matched against the 1994 Japanese Horse of the Year Narita Brian in the Hanshin Daishoten and was beaten into second place.^[13] In June at Kyoto he recorded his biggest success as a four-year-old at the Takarazuka Kinen over 2200 metres. At the race, the thirteen starters battling it out closed the whole race. Mayano Top Gun himself was held back by Kanetsu Cross and Legacy World. At the final kilometer, Mayano Top Gun surged past both of those horses and held the position to win the race, beating Sunday Branch and the mare Dance Partner by a length and half.^[14] Later in the year he finished second to Bubble Gum Fellow in the autumn edition of the Tenno Sho where the three-year-old colt took the early lead and had the extra energy on the final straight over Mayano Top Gun and Sakura Laurel.^[15]

In March 1997, Mayano Top Gun raced in the Hanshin Daishoten. His jockey, Seiki Tabara made a bold call to change the horse running strategy from early lead to final pursuit.^[16] On the race day, Mayano Top Gun stayed mostly at the back. Then, in the final stretch, he began to sprint in between the third and fourth corner. Entering the straight, he unleashed a powerful finishing kick and broke through for his first win of the season over Big Symbol and Gigaton.^[16][17] A month later he contested the Spring edition of the Tenno Sho over 3200 metres at Kyoto. This would be an epic battle between the three strongest older horses (Sakura Laurel, Marvelous Sunday and himself). Both Sakura Laurel and Marvelous Sunday took the lead at the ending phase but Mayano Top Gun, stuck to the strategy from previous race, chased after both in the final straight and crossed the line first.^[16] He won the race from Sakura Laurel (winner of the race in 1996), with Marvelous Sunday in third place and etched a new record finish at the time.^[18][19] Unfortunately, he had to retire right after the race as he developed tendonitis on his legs.^[16] A retirement ceremony was held at Hanshin Racecourse during the lunch break on November 30.^[20]

Mayano Top Gun won eight race out of 21 starts and snatched four G1 win during his career. This data available is based on JBIS and netkeiba.^[21][6]

In 1995, Mayano Top Gun was voted Japanese Horse of the Year and the Best Three-year-old Colt.^[22]

After retirement, Mayano Top Gun stand as a stud at Yushun Stallion Station in Niikappu, Hokkaido until he retired in 2015.^[23] He stayed there for the rest of his life until he died of old age on November 3, 2019, at 27 years old.^[24]

c = colt, f = filly

An anthropomorphized version of Mayano Top Gun appears in the Umamusume: Pretty Derby franchise, voiced by Mio Hoshitani.^[26]